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Shortly before he was accosted
by topless activists screaming obscenities yesterday President Putin
signed a law banning “foul language” in the media.

Unlike the protest by Femen, an international network of “sextremists”, the
law is vaguely phrased. It does not list banned words.

Journalists said that swearwords almost never appeared in the media anyway.

The Kremlin said that “linguistics experts” would rule on what was banned,
further muddying the waters for editors and producers. Sergei Zheleznyak, a
parliamentary deputy from the ruling United Russia party and a co-author of
the law, said a list would have been “senseless”. He added